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AN 

ADDRESS 

DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



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ANNUAL EXHIBITION 






BALTIMORE, OCTOBER 28th, 1853: 

y 

By CHAUNCEY P. HOLCOMB, 

OF DELAWARE. 



BALTIMORE 
FROM THE PRESS OF SANDS & MILLS, 
Office of the "American Farmer." 

1853. 



©©[i^!©^®^©!^© 



To C. P. Holcomb, Esq. 
Sir:— 
The undersigned, a Committee of the Maryland State Agricultural 
Society, appointed for the especial purpose of soliciting from you a copy 
of the Address delivered upon this day before it, would most respectfully 
observe, that in gratifying the request of the Society in consenting to its 
publication, the interests of the common cause in which we are embarked 
would be most essentially subserved by your compliance, as from the sen- 
timents embodied in your eloquent lecture so replete with interest and 
information, its diffusion through the press can but exercise a most bene- 
ficial influence upon the agricultural community which our Society has 
the honor to represent. 

With sentiments of the highest respect and esteem, 
Yours, &c. 

SAMUEL P. SMITH, 



THOS. R. JOYNES, Jr. 
JNO. CARROLL WALSH. 



Baltimore, Ml., Oct. 28, 1853. 



Barnum's Hotel, Baltimore, Oct. 28, 1853. 

To Samuel P. Smith, Thos. R. Joynes, Jr., John Carroll Walsh, 
Esqrs., Committee. 

Gentlemen: 

In answer to your note requesting me to furnish a copy of my address 
for publication, I reply I will do so with pleasure. 

I fear you greatly over-estimate its merits, but such as it is — the MS. 
containing the substance of my remarks will be placed at your disposal. 
Respectfully yours, 

CHAUNCEY P. HOLCOMB. 



ADDRESS. 



Gentlemen of the Society — 

My Brother Agriculturists : — 

I suppose I may regard the summons by which I appear 
before you, as one calling upon me to testify as a witness in 
the cause of Agriculture, rather than as an advocate to argue 
its claims, or as an orator, eloquently to declaim about it. 

This is an anniversary occasion intended for the promo- 
tion of Agriculture, and intended to be in honor of Agriculture 
-^and we may at such a time very appropriately refer to the 
past. I have sometimes thought that in our congratulations 
of ourselves upon our success, we might seem indirectly to 
reflect upon our predecessors — upon the dead — the men and 
the generations of the past. We should be careful to do their 
memory no injustice. There is certainly a very general and 
wide spread public opinion to the effect, that rural sports and 
pastimes, the turf and the chase, the exercise of an unbound- 
ed hospitality, and the time spent in social intercourse, not 
only interfered with their agricultural pursuits, but that to 
these causes are mainly to be attributed the worn-out estates 
to which the present generation succeeded. This is a short- 
sighted and very erroneous view of the subject. 

It is true that the landed proprietors of Delaware, Maryland 
and Virginia, in particular, continued to engage in and enjoy 
the sports that were regarded as appropriate to country life — 
and which are so regarded now, and so practiced now by the 
people from whom we are descended — a practice in which I 
hope, succeeding generations of our country population will 
long continue to emulate them. Men cannot work always ; 



the bow should not always remain strung. We have re- 
sources for amusement and relaxation in our field and other 
sports, not only more manly and healthful, but more harm- 
less and innocent than those that are nightly sought by the 
denizens of our cities. I trust the day is distant, when either 
the economic spirit of a utilitarian age, or the austerity of a 
religious one, will banish these from our manual of pastimes 
and exercises. 

The short and truthful history of the past is this. The 
early settlers of this district of country found themselves in 
the possession of good lands, a fine climate, rich staples, the 
country intersected by fine Bays and Rivers, giving them 
easy access to market, and a general time of prosperity en- 
sued. They not only fed the country to a great extent from 
their wheat fields, but grew for export an amount that almost 
entirely supplied the foreign exchanges, as wheat and flour 
were the leading articles of export up to 1805, when the ex- 
port of cotton rose to $9,000,000, taking the first place which 
it has since retained. 

But the era of Agricultural Improvement had not yet dawn- 
ed, not even in Europe. The course of tillage was one of 
exhaustion, sending away with the wheat and tobacco crop, 
year after year, the valuable constituents of the soil, without 
any attempt at restoration. Contemporary with the prostra- 
tion of their lands, the markets began to give way. The 
long European wars had terminated ; peace had succeeded 
our war with Great Britain, and the price of wheat went down 
in 1820 in England, subject to a heavy duty, to 44 shillings 
a quarter, while in our own markets it was worth but about 65 
cents a bushel, and corn 25 cents. There was more Flour 
and Wheat shipped out of the country during the last ten 
years of the last century than there was thirty years later. 
From 1790 to 1800 there was shipped of wheat 5,386,710 
bushels, and of flour, 7,684,456 barrels. From 1820 to 1830 
215,272 bushels of wheat, and 8,295,920 barrels of flour— 
the excess of the first decennial period being equal to about two 
and a half millions of bushels of wheat. 



Dr. Samuel Black of Delaware, in a very curious and able 
Essay, published in the old American, Farmer, in 1S20, 
states the average of the crops of that period in New Castle 
County, to be, 5 bushels of wheat to the acre, 10 of corn, 
and 15 of oats. These were the causes — national causes — 
commercial causes — the state of agricultural knowledge — that 
prostrated this interest so low before the close of the first quar- 
ter of the present century, and not a few horse races and fox 
chases, or the discharge of the duties of an open and liberal 
hospitality. Another charge indeed, is in effect, that they 
did too much — that they cleared up the whole country and 
wore it all out — having every where felled the forests, and in- 
continently ploughed it forever. I apprehend they did about 
the best they could, and 

"He who does the best the circumstance allows, 

Does well, acts nobly, the best and most generous can no more." 

They did not reclaim their poor fields, nor, gentlemen, with 
their means, could we have done it. 

These were dark days for Agriculture — days of gloom and 
despondency — a night, a double night — an "opaque of na- 
ture and of soul" seemed to shroud it. The population were 
flying from the Old States, and there appeared to be danger 
of a general exodus. 

About this time a few bold public spirited men began to 
urge most strenuously the necessity, and the practicability of 
a reform in Agriculture. Conspicuous among these, though 
there were many others in different parts of the country, was 
Col. John Taylor, of Caroline. The first Agricultural press, 
the old American Farmer, made its appearance about this 
time, and no one can refer to its early columns without feel- 
ing that there is a deep debt of gratitude due to John S. Skin- 
ner. 

A better rotation of crops and the use of Plaster and Clover, 
and finally of Lime, were beginning to show their effects in 
improving and ameliorating the condition of our lands, when 
the great Agricultural discovery of the age — so far as reclaim- 



ing worn-out lands is concerned — the discovery of the virtues 
of Peruvian Guano, has enabled us at once, in a single sea- 
son, by a single slight dressing, hardly more in weight than 
the seed with which we sow the land, to restore the most 
worn-out and exhausted fields to the production of their most 
palmy days. 

Your merit, my brother farmers, the merit of our contem- 
poraries, is in the zeal and spirit with which all have engaged 
in this cause of Agricultural improvement. No sooner did a 
single ray of hope appear — no sooner were men able to grope 
their way by die dim lights of science, or the doubtful results 
of half tried experiments, than they were willing to venture — 
willing all uncalculating to cast their bread upon the waters. 
It was not in a mercenary spirit, or one that looked alone to 
gain. It was with very many — perhaps a majority, a gener- 
ous, unselfish, patriotic purpose to improve their Estates if this 
could be done without hopelessly embarrassing themselves. 
Of course they looked to returns first or last, or rather hoped 
for them, but the direct profits of the enterprise was less con- 
sidered than its success, and many a swail and bog, many a 
worn-out and gullied old field has been encountered, subdued 
or reclaimed in this spirit. I repeat, this is creditable. It was 
the impulse of a sentiment, unprompted by the passion of av- 
arice, or the base spirit of lucre. The mind too, with you, has 
been more than ever an "informing principle to the plough." 
Men have thought, and read, and pondered over this great 
subject in all its bearings. Judging from the success that has 
attended us, there is every cause for hope in the future. The 
three States in part represented by this Society, are even now 
unsurpassed in the production of wheat, the great staple of 
the world, by any other like amount of population in the 
Union. The aggregate population of Delaware, Maryland, 
and Virginia, by the last census is£§^M^$L; their produc- 
tion of wheat 17,200, SOT bushels or a fraction over 8^ bushels 
to each person. The aggregate population of Ohio and 
Michigan, is 2,378,061 ; their production of wheat, 19,413,- 
289 bushels, or a fraction less than 8} bushels to each person. 



9 

Wiscoilsion is the only other State that gets up to 8 bushels, 
and this State with a virgin soil exceeds it. The crop of 
Ohio, it should be observed, is said to have been short the 
year the census was taken, or in 1S48. 

And thus the facts show, that in a few short years we have 
completely falsified the vaticinations which are thus promul- 
gated to the world in McGregor's work on this country : 

"In all (he old wheat districts of Delaware, Maryland and Vir- 
ginia, the land is all so completely exhausted by continued 
cropping, that it must be abandoned for years, until restored 
to vigour by the recuperative powers of nature, or transferred 
to another population better qualified to recover it by art and 
industry." 

Not only has such been the general result, but we may re- 
fer to particular instances where the crops grown by some of 
our farmers about equal in quantity, and surpass in quality 
the 'produce of the best English husbandry. A specimen of 
the beautiful Gale wheat is on exhibition here to-day, grown 
on the Estate of James T. Earle, Esq., of the Eastern Shore, 
averaging by weight 39 bushels to the acre, and a more clean, 
fair, plump and beautiful article can hardly be seen. The 
farm on which it grew produces now one thousand bushels for 
every one hundred it formerly produced, or the difference be- 
tween a handsome income of several thousand dollars by the 
annual sale of several thousand bushels of grain, and the pro- 
ceeds of a few hundred bushels sparsely gathered from its 
wide-spread fields by its former possessor, the ancestor of Mr. 
Earle, the late Judge Earle. This is but one instance, there 
are hundreds. 

But we have only fairly commenced. There are many 
matters indeed we have hardly laid our hands to at all, in which 
success is desirable and must be attained. We must not on- 
ly excel in a general husbandry, but breeding and grazing 
must to some extent especially claim our attention ; indeed the 
whole routine of the affairs of rural life as suited to our soil and 
climate, including Horticulture, and Fruit culture, and what- 
ever is calculated to embellish our homes or enrich our estates 
must receive the best thoughts of our minds and the best la- 
bors of our hand. 
2 



10 

To this end I will make some suggestions in reference to 
What came under my observation in a recent short visit to 
Europe ■. 

Let me give you a description of Wark farm, situated in 
the county of Northumberland, on the south bank of the 
Tweed, which separates England from Scotland. 

It belongs to the estate of the Earl of Tankerville, and is 
in the tenure of Mr. William Dove, a very intelligent and em 
terprising farmer. It contains 1200 acres of very superior 
land ; the annual rent of the farm is ^3000, or $15,000. It 
is worked in four shifts^ Two hundred acres are in perma- 
nent pasture, two hundred and fifty in Turnips, five hundred 
in other crops — mostly Wheat, Oats and Barley, two hundred 
and fifty in grass. He works it with twenty-four horses, em- 
ploys twelve ploughmen, two spadesmen, two stewards or 
overseers ; he hires thirty women Workers in summer, and 
twenty in winter. In harvest he employs from eighty to one 
hundred and sixty hands in all ; he keeps a joiner and a black- 
smith, he thrashes by water power. He keeps and feeds from 
six to seven hundred sheep, and feeds and turns off about two 
hundred and fifty head of cattle in the course of the year. 
The women laborers are paid twenty-five cents a day, the men 
about thirty-seven and a half, all boarding themselves. The 
Cattle and sheep he mostly breeds on other Highland or Scotch 
farms he rents. He pays altogether .$ 25 ,000 annual rent. 

Now I take this farm as a type or model to convey an idea of 
English farming operations — to show what crops they culti- 
vate, to what extent they graze and feed, and for this, and the 
kind of labor they use and the price they pay, Wark farm may 
be considered a fair representative of a very large class of 
English and Scotch farms. It is larger than the average, but 
smaller than some. Two, three, five, six and seven hundred 
acre farms are more common. 

Seven hundred out of the twelve hundred acres of Wark 
farm it will be seen are devoted to grazing and feeding, for the 
two hundred and fifty acres of Turnips are of course fed on 
the farm to cattle and sheep. This crop is made to answer to 



11 

our Corn crop, and though far from being of equal value they 
calculate that less than an acre of good Turnips will fatten a 
bullock. A large bullock they say, will eat six bushels a day. 
I have a much higher opinion of their value since I have seen 
how they will fatten cattle and sheep. I think we may cul- 
tivate them to advantage to some extent by way of a variety. 
But a little over one hundred acres on this farm of twelve hun- 
dred goes in wheat. In a good season they count on forty 
bushels of 70 pounds to the bushel, about equal to forty-six 
or seven bushels to the acre of sixty pounds to the bushel, our 
standard . 

Besides all the manure that is made from feeding so many 
cattle and sheep, 25 tons of Guano and 800 bushels of bones 
are annually purchased, and once in about eight years the 
land receives a dressing of nine tons of lime, to the acre, about 
three hundred bushels. 

Now to keep this farm in the condition its intelligent and 
successful proprietor desires, if he were to make grain its prin- 
cipal product and sell that off from the farm, the annual out- 
lay for manure would have to be very great, and the $ 15,000 
annual rent probably could not be made. Their idea seems 
to be that the profits of breeding and grazing, whatever they 
may be, are clear profits, while in selling grain they are selling 
labor and manure, or a portion of the valuable constituents of 
their soil, all of which have to be bought back in the 
market again. I think we may take a hint from them here. 
I doubt if any country that is constantly heavily cropped in 
grain or in any tillage crop, and which is sold from the farm, 
is likely to reach a very high state of improvement and be 
kept there. We should not become so set in our ways or fix 
ed in our habits as not to change our practice when the state 
and condition of the markets will compensate us for doing so. 

The subject of the markets is not sufficiently considered by 
us ; the English are wiser. We send for instance, our grain 
to market at a certain season as apart of a mere routine; we 
sow, harvest, thrash, and then send forward to market — with- 
out once considering whether there is a fair legitimate demand 



12 

at remunerating prices, or whether we are likely to be met on- 
\y by the speculators in the market, buying in a glutted mar- 
ket at a minimum price to reap in good time the profits that 
should be the producers. 

Last year much of the wheat crop was sold for 75 and 80 
cents a bushel ; it subsequently went up, after it had parted 
from first hands to $ 1.20. The farmer lost the profits ; he got 
pay, at most, only for his labor and his manure. It is often so, 
it is constantly so. If possible we should endeavor to learn 
the condition, or at least the prospect of the English crop, and 
the state of the western crop, particularly in the states of Ohio 
and Michigan. Knowing the importance of this information 
to my brother farmers, I did what I could the past season to 
keep them informed through the American Farmer, in re- 
ference to the English crop — and I have since had the satisfac- 
tion of learning that some acted on this information and held 
on till the price went up. If it is not safe to let our wheat stand 
in stacks, or we cannot house it, we should get it out and put 
it in granaries, or send it forward to be kept in store. Any 
thing but being sacrificed as we are by rushing into the market 
blindfold, and being forced to take whatever is offered us. The 
English farmer watches the market as a mariner will his Bar- 
ometer, and like him too, he surveys, as far as he can, the 
whole horizon. If there is a speck of war no bigger than his 
hand he logs it — the price of freights, the state of the money 
market, the condition of crops in the different grain countries, 
all these are matters he well weighs and considers. 

In reference to English husbandry, I may say generally, it 
is very neat. Their ambition seems to be to do work well, 
ours to do a good deal. They very justly attach great impor- 
tance to good ploughing, and nothing can exceed the neatness 
and skill with which this important part of husbandry is per- 
formed. They do not plough as much in a day as we do, an 
acre is considered a good day's work. Many of their teams 
are harnessed tandem, three large horses to a big iron plough. 
In executing a job with despatch there is no people that can 
excel or equal us. We seek for the short ways and are at work 



13 

with head and hand at the same time. We exert ourselves 
more than they do, and man for man accomplish more. 

But the English and Scotch are good neat farmers and de- 
serve all praise. They take it coolly too — I was down in De- 
vonshire in haying time ; it had rained two weeks before I ar- 
rived and it rained more or less every day for the two weeks I 
was there — making thirty consecutive days of rainy or wet 
weather in the height of their hay harvest. I expressed my 
sympathy to one of the farmers who had thirty acres of heavy 
grass down, and which was literally rotting in the cock. "O, 
Sir," said he, "the hay is quite spoiled as you say, quite sir, 
but then what a beautiful stand of Turnips I have? and 
what fine grass in my pastures, both of which have been help- 
ed by the rain, and you know if the bullocks get fat this fall 
and I turn them off, I can do without the hay, that is, sir, I 
shall do without it, you know, and then providence sent the 
rain and what have we to say." The English certainly have 
a good deal of practical philosophy. They seem to me to 
be a very honest people. They regard a thing as right or 
wrong judged by a moral standard, and no sophistry or cir- 
cumlocution can change its character. 

The domestic animals of England, of the present day, are 
unequalled by those of any other country in the world. The 
improvement of their breeds has been a great source of na- 
tional wealth, and exclusive of their stud, have probably 
doubled in value within the last half century. It is a great 
grass country ; their sheep are a source of great income to 
them. I saw at Lammas Fair, near Melrose, in Scotland, 
80,000 lambs assembled on one common, and all were sold 
between 7 o'clock in the morning and 12 o'clock noon. 
Three Banks were represented on the ground, occupying 
tents, to do the business ; a quarter of a million of dollars 
changed hands in five hours, the banks furnishing facilities 
of exchange, &c. The lambs sold from 3 to $5 a piece. 

The demand for Stock in our own country of every descrip- 
tion is good; prices are highly remunerative, and yet cattle 
seem to be scarce. Cows have been bought in Ohio this Aiu 



14 

tumn at $35 a head, to drive into the Atlantic market. 
Calves were selling the past summer, in the neighbourhood of 
Lexington, at $5 and $8 a piece, a few weeks old — and 
my neighbours have been buying in their store cattle, 3 
year old Steers, at from $36 to $46 a head. 

The rapid multiplication and increase of our cities, and 
the foreign demand occasioned by an advance of wages, by 
which the laboring classes are enabled to eat more meat, makes 
the increased consumption of meat, both of Beef and Pork, 
immense. In 1851 the arrivals of Bacon, at tide- water, was 
10,398,900 pounds, and in 1853 the arrivals have been 
19,330,500 — an increase of nearly 100 per cent. The arri- 
vals of Pork this year, exceed those of 1851 by more than 
100 per cent. There are slaughtered in the city of New 
York, about an average of 4,000 beeves a week. The ac- 
curate report of the numbers brought to the city within the 
last ten weeks, is 41,852 — and the number of all slaughtered 
animals during the same period, including sheep, lambs, 
veals, swine, and inclusive also of beef cattle, is stated at 
233,729, making an average of about 23,000 animals slaugh- 
tered weekly in New York, which is only one out of many 
cities we now have to supply. 

We have got now to growing the cultivated grasses. Clo- 
ver in England, will only take once in about eight years. — 
With us, a single year intervening, or after two crops taken 
from the land, it will come again, and a good dressing of Gu- 
ano will generally bring it on any of our old fields. It is bet- 
ter for the succeeding crop of wheat to graze the clover than 
to turn it down; its root constitutes its main value, and the 
benefit resulting from the land being tramped in depasturing 
it, is more than equivalent to the value of the top. Clover 
fields then, with some permanent pasture, and the breeding 
and feeding of stock, in connection with the growth of wheat 
and other grain, makes a nice husbandry, and we should 
then follow Mr. Wm. Dove's rule, "that the farmer should 
never go to market except to sell — he should have both a 
feeder's and a breeder's profit to himself." Cattle may be 
best suited to some locations — sheep or horses to other lo- 
cations. 



15 

The time has arrived when we should go to work to breed 
a good stud of horses — the best that can be bred in any 
country. We can do it; our climate, which has great influ- 
ence, favors it. A fine stud, besides constituting a large item 
in the Wealth of a country, otherwise favorably represents it — 
for the horse, when in perfection, is with all people an object 
of pride and admiration. 

The English Stud, particularly their blood stock, has 
greatly deteriorated of late years. The cause is to be found 
in their mode of breeding, by which a forced maturity is ef- 
fected. They are very commonly entered to run at two years 
old) and have to be made up — not naturally grown — by that 
time. They make some muscle by craming with oats from 
the time the colt is three weeks old. The breeding is now 
for the benefit of the sportsman — for the interest of the "bet- 
ting ring," and not for the perfection of the breed. All they 
Want is heels. Their horses can no longer run four miles, 
and repeat) but they run a single dash of two miles, two and 
a half, and at the Darby and Goodwod about three miles. — 
They are surprised to hear that we yet have horses that can 
run four miles, and repeat. I am satisfied there are no hor- 
ses to be found in all Europe, that can make the time the 
Boston stock did at Richmond the other day, running 4 mile 
heats, namely: — 7m. 46s.; 7m. 46^s.; 7m. 49s. 

We imported some of their best horses after they had in- 
troduced the best Eastern blood — the Arabian, the Barb, 
and the Turk — mostly before the war of the Revolution, and 
about the close of the last century, and this blood we now 
have in its purity. We have another valuable family in the 
Morgan and Black Hawk breed — animals of fine style and 
action, and showing in their lofty crests a distinguished mark 
of the Arabian. There are no horses that can trot with ours 
— that is given up. Now we should go to work and breed 
fine horses. They are regarded in our cities by one class, as 
an article of luxury, and are frequently purchased as articles 
of virtu, or specimens of the Fine Arts, and at extravagant 
prices. 



10 

The breeder must not keep them too long — it adds to the 
expense; the English understand this. They ought to be 
quite ready to go off by the time they are three years old. I 
would adopt the English system of maturing, so far as to 
feed the colt with oats the first year; that I think would not 
hurt him. I have seen the effect on calves of feeding them 
grain the first winter; they will make larger animals, and 
size is particularly to be regarded in breeding for our cities. — 
The cross of the thorough bred race horse, one of pretty 
good size, upon a large, roomy, common mare, will give us 
something like the English Hunter. To cross the thorough 
bred Racer on large Morgan mares, if they can be had, or 
the reverse — the Morgan horse on large thorough bred Race 
mares, should give us a noble breed. I especially commend 
this whole subject to our young agricultural friends. We 
have all a great interest in it, not only as a matter of profit, 
but as adding to our pleasures^ supplying our daughters with 
the means of becoming accomplished equestrians, and ena- 
bling our sons to "witch" themselves, if not "the world; 
with horsemanship." 

This subject is beginning to attract attention. The great 
National Exhibition of Horses recently held at Springfield, 
will exert a favorable influence. Similar exhibitions should 
follow, and a generous emulation will be excited throughout 
the country, to bring this noble animal to the highest possi- 
ble state of perfection. 

Among (he means that have been prominently influential 
in advancing the cause of Agriculture, are Agricultural Soci- 
eties. We are to look to them to effect much more. It is 
through these Associations that an Agricultural public opin- 
ion is being formed — an organization of agriculturists effect- 
ed, and a brolherhood of association cemented. We are no 
longer separate and isolated, but a community. That inter- 
est that should seek to overslaugh Agriculture, or oppress it 
with selfish and unjust legislation, will not be encountered as 
formerly by some "Village Hampden," attempting to with- 
stand the "Tyrant of his fields/' but by a public opinion, 



17 

brought to bear through our fraternity of interest and associa- 
tion, in a maner to make itself felt and respected. 

The great feature of the age — the last phase and tableau 
of rural life — you may say of social life — is these Agricultu- 
ral Exhibitions. They represent in the numbers they 
congregate, almost the population of the nation. What occa- 
sion within the past year has assembled the people like the 
State Fairs at Saratoga, Pittsburgh, Dayton, Springfield, 
Illinois, Lexington, Baltimore, Richmond, Augusta and the 
National Fair at Springfield, Mass.? Then the County So- 
cieties throughout almost the width and breadth of the land, 
have had their Fairs, assembling every where the people. 

The friend of Agriculture must not only be gratified with 
these results, but the friend of his country must rejoice at 
them ; for he will see in the devotion of a manly, virtuous 
yeomanry to the great agricultural interest of the country, 
which they so adopt, and press forward, scorning all political 
intrigue, and all meaner things — the best evidence that liber- 
ty and the institutions of our country are safe with them, 
while corruption and venality will not go unwhipped of jus- 
tice at their hands. "The hands that planted the tree of 
liberty can protect it while it shades them." 

I fearlessly pronounce, that no man who fails to visit these 
Exhibitions, can conduct his farming operations with the 
lights of the age, or intelligently. Here is seen in a few 
hours all the different breeds of Cattle, Sheep, Horses, Hogs, 
Poultry; all the different kinds of Grain, Grasses, Fruits; the 
different description of Implements, with the latest improve- 
ments; here he meets others, and the talk is of these things — 
of their merits and demerits — of the crops and the markets, 
and he goes home well posted up as to the state and condi- 
tion of Agriculture in 1853, or for that year. 

All honor to the public spirited men who have been fore- 
most in the organization of these Societies. I regard them 
as benefactors — public benefactors. Contrast these grounds 
to day with the first Exhibition we held. Who can doubt 
the increased wealth of Maryland, through the improvement 
3 



IS 

of her live stock? The personal energy of one man has had 
much to do with our success. This man is on these grounds 
in the morning before most of us are out of our beds, and 
never leaves them until the gates are closed for the night. I 
once saw him doing even more yeoman service. It was the 
year of our first Exhibition on the new grounds west of the 
city. There was no hay for the stock — a negro approaching 
with a load got stalled, and some of us hunting for the Presi- 
dent, found him with his shoulder braced to the negro's 
ivagon tvheel, endeavoring by the exertion of all his person- 
al strength to help the baulky horses out with their load. — 
The relations of Charles B. Calvert, as the able executive 
head of this Society, we trust will not soon be terminated ; 
but, happen when it may, he will probably never be allowed 
to leave it without taking with him some token or memorial 
of the high estimation in which his services are held by its 
members. If it be in the form of a Picture, by all means 
let it represent the worthy President at the Negro's Wagon 
wheel, helping forward the hay for the stock, his scarf and 
badges of office well besmeared with mud, or it would not 
be "life-like." 

There are other early and staunch friends of the Society 
that we cannot cease to remember, among them the late Judge 
Glenn. His professional brethren could hardly more regret 
his loss than the members of this Society, to whom he was 
endeared by the interest which he took in their cause, and 
the services he rendered it. 

There is a great national object in connection with Agri- 
culture that claims our attention. Our interest has not such 
a footing in the Government as it deserves, and is entitled to; 
agriculture is, in effect, disfranchised; there is hardly a record 
kept of it. Commerce has its agents and representatives both 
at home and abroad. We want a Department, or a Bureau; 
we want the foreign information we could obtain through it; 
we want statistics; we require special negotiation in reference 
to Guano, and other subjects connected with our pursuit. — 



19 

Such a Department should have charge of the Public Lands, 
As to the expense to the government, the advantage and gain 
to a single good agricultural county would defray it ; it is not 
to be thought of. 

Such a Department would guard against the encroachments 
of other interests; it would add to the dignity of this great 
national interest, and it is a boon it deserves by the success it 
has ensured, and by the wealth and numbers that now rep- 
resent it. 

There is another matter of paramount importance taken in 
connection with this. We want a National Agricultural Col- 
lege. Both these subjects were agitated at the organization 
of the United States Agricultural Society in June, 1852. We 
had then every reason to believe that success could be secured 
to both, and have now. 

The favorite plan for an Agricultural College and model 
farm seems to be to connect it with the Smithsonian Institute. 
The desire of the benevolent testator was to "diffuse know- 
ledge among men," and to no class is it more necessary than 
to our youth adopting the pursuit of Agriculture — and to none 
could it be extended who could return fruits more likely to 
scatter blessings over the land. 

There are in Europe according to Professor Hitchcock's re- 
port who visited and travelled over Europe to obtain informa- 
tion in connection with this subject, no less than 338 Agricul- 
tural Schools and Colleges, besides 14 Colleges and Univer- 
sities, in which there are Agricultural Professorships, and to 
nearly all of which are attached experimental farms. 

The farm would be an important feature with us. There 
is nothing indeed more necessary for us than an Experimen- 
tal Farm. We are yearly suffering great losses for want of it. 
Take the following as an instance: — John S. Skinner as long 
back as December, 1824 — 29 years ago, procured two barrels 
of genuine Guano from the coast of Peru ; he placed it in the 
hands of some friends who probably paid little attention to it,- 
and that was the end of it. Had we have had an experimen- 
tal farm doubtless its inestimable value would have been as- 
certained, and I am not certain we should over estimate the 



20 

gain to the country by saying the discovery would have been 
equal to the whole expenses of the government from that day 
to this. 

Something like what is now proposed was recommended by 
Gen. Washington in his last message to Congress, and so san- 
guine did he seem to be of its success, that he subsequently, 
in a letter to his friend Sir John Sinclair, apologized for the 
measure not having been carried, on the ground that it was 
during a short session of Congress and there was not time. 

This plan avoids all Constitutional objections, though any 
extension of its operations may well be considered as covered 
by the clause that authorizes Congress to legislate " for the 
public welfare." Shall every other Government on earth but 
our own foster its agriculture, which is the great interest of ev- 
ery great nation, and ours hardly acknowledge its existence 
except to draw the revenue in large proportion from that class 
of citizens devoted to its pursuit? There are many new 
and great staples yet to be discovered and introduced ; there 
is much to be done that can only be done by the aid of Gov- 
ernment, and the time has arrived when public men catching 
the spirit that comes up from every part of our wide-spread 
country will agree to fix its heart and centre at the Capitol of 
the nation, thus for the first time so far as Government is con- 
cerned, giving it a local habitation and a name. 

The Farmer and Nestor of Silver Spring, Francis P. Blair, 
Esq., in an able Agricultural Address recently delivered in 
Montgomery County, Md., has treated this subject with his 
usual ability, clearness and force, and has pronounced an ar- 
gument in its favor that cannot fail to convince any man who 
will read it of the utility of the measure. 

Mr. Blair truly remarks, "We want the science, the system 
and skill, taught in schools, to give direction to that energy of 
mind and body among our countrymen which accomplishes so 
much without their aid, and with it would make the superior 
cultivation of the soil their greatest triumph. We have self- 
taught men in every pursuit, and among them some eminent 
men ; but education, which brings to the assistance of an iso- 



21 

lated individual the experience of past ages and the strength 
of a multitude of men exerting all their faculties in concert to 
promote his efforts to master the most complicated and vast 
pursuit in which he can engage, is certainly the first thing to 
be sought." 

I have failed to acknowledge the presence of the fair daugh- 
ters of Maryland, as well as the presence of others from the 
adjoining States. Yet we have all seen them here defying 
the elements, with threatening clouds over head and damp 
wet ground beneath their feet passing round our grounds, 
cheering us by their smiles or encouraging us by the sounds 
of their approving voice ; and this is right. When their Hus- 
bands, Fathers and Brothers have come forth with all their 
best appointments to do honor to agriculture — why should they 
not lend the charm of their presence to give to the occasion 
greater interest and honor? Was it not Portia — Brutus' Portia, 
that sent seven times to the Forum to hear how her husband 
was succeeding with his speech? Was it not the high bred 
Grecian dame Aurelia, that trained herself her son to con- 
tend for the prize at the Olympic Games, and was present in 
disguise that she might be near him, as she said, "to console 
him in case of defeat or to rejoice with him in the victory." 
The most attractive scene of rural life any where to be seen is 
these show grounds — this beautiful amphitheatre of a fair and 
bright day when the grouping on the landscape includes as it 
always does, hundreds and thousands of these fine fair women 
the descendants of a landed gentry who justly appreciated the 
dignity of their calling and taught their sons and daughters to 
appreciate it too. There is an account given by Madam Ried- 
esel, who was the wife of a German General, that was taken 
prisoner at the capture of Burgoyne — in her memoirs, of a 
visit she paid to a Maryland Lady, which, as showing what 
was early done, and the pride and interest the ladies took in 
embellishing and exhibiting their country homes, 1 cannot 
but extract. 

"At the Frederick Springs," she says, "we became ac- 
quainted with General Washington's family, and with Mr. 
m * * an j Mrs. * * *. Mrs. was a very 



m 

amiable woman, and notwithstanding lier attachment to he* 
country, we became great friends. I visited her; the garden 
was splendid, and the day after our arrival she took us in her 
carriage to her vineyard, which was still more beautiful and 
tasteful, and much exceeded my expectations. We walkad 
to the Orchard, at the end of which we ascended the slope 
by a winding pa(h to the top, and all along the vines were 
gracefully intertwined with rose bushes and amaranths. From 
the top of the slope the prospect was charming, and such as 
I have not seen in any other part of America through which 
I have travelled. Not far from this place is Baltimore, which 
I am told is a very beautiful town, and the residence of many 
interesting families." 

As shewing the interest English Ladies take in Agricul- 
ture, I cannot but relate a casual interview I chanced to 
have with an English lady, in going up in the Express train 
from London to York. Her husband had bought a book at 
the stand as we were about starting, and remarked to her 
that "it was one of her favorite American Authors — Haw- 
thorn." I casually observed, " I was pleased to see young 
American authors found admirers with English ladies," 
when the conversation turned on books and authors. But I 
said to myself pretty soon, "this is a literary lady — probably 
her husband is an Editor or Reviewer, and she uses the 
"scissors" for him; at all events, I must retreat from this 
discussion about authors, modern poets, and poetry. What 
should a farmer know critically of such things ? If I was 
only in those fields — if the conversation could be made to 
turn upon crops, or cattle, then I should feel quite at home." 
I finally pointed out a field of wheat, and remarked it was 
very fine. The lady carefully observing it, said: "Sir, I 
think it is too thin — a common fault this season, as the seed- 
ing was late;" "those drills," she added, turning to her 
husband for his confirmation, "cannot be more than ten 
inches apart, and you sec, sir, the ground is not completely 
covered — twelve, and even fifteen inches is now preferred for 
the width of drills, and two bushels of seed to the acre will 
then entirely cover the ground, on good land, so you can 
hardly distinguish the drills." 



23 

If the Goddess Ceres had appeared with her sheaf, oi- 
lier cornucopia, I could not have been taken more by sur- 
prise. A lady descanting on the width of wheat drills, mid 
the quantity of seed ! 

'1 will try her again,' said I, 'this may be a chance shot,' 
and remarked in reference to a field of ploughed ground 
we were passing, that it broke up in great lumps and could 
hardly be put in good tilth, — "We have much clay land 
like this," she replied, "and formerly it was difficult to culti- 
vate it in a tillage crop, but since the introduction of Cross- 
kill's Patent Clod Crusher they will make the most beauti- 
ful tilth on these lands, and which are now regarded as 
among our best wheat lands." 

The conversation turned on cattle ; she spoke of the best 
breeds of Cows for the pail, (the Ayrshires and Devons,) told 
me where the best Cheese was made — Cheshire — the best 
butter — Ireland — where the best milk-maids were to be 
found — Wales — "Oh !" said I, "I was mistaken ; this charm- 
ing intelligent woman, acting so natural and unaffected; dress- 
ed so neat and so very plain, must be a farmer's wife, and 
what a help-mate he has in her ? She is not an extravagant 
wife either, not an ornament about her — yes a single bracelet 
clasps a fair rounded arm — that's all." The train stopped at 
York ; no sooner had my travelling companions stepped upon 
the platform than I noticed they were surrounded by half a 
dozen servants — men and maids — the men in full livery. 
It turned out to be Sir John and Lady H. This gentleman I 
learned was one of the largest landed proprietors in Berkshire, 
and his lady the daughter of a Nobleman, a Peeress in her 
own right ; but her title added nothing to her, she was a no- 
ble woman without it. 

It is a part of our task to excel in Horticulture, in which fe- 
male taste and skill must aid us. We must embellish our 
homes ; we must make them sweet and pleasant homes. The 
brave old oaks must be there ; the spacious lawn with its 
green sward — and the fruit orchard, and the shrubbery, and 
the roses, the vines festooned and trained about the walls and 



24 

balconies — even the birds will think that a sweet home and 
will come and sing and make melody, as though they would 
"teach the art to imilative man." 

Such a home will be entailed to our children, and to their 
children — not by statute laws of entail, but by a higher law, 
the law of nature — through the force of sympathy — the asso- 
ciations of childhood, 

"The Orchard, the Meadow, the deep tangled wild-wood, 
And every loved spot which our infancy knew, 

These will hold them to it — these early memories — which we 
should take care to deepen with a binding and indissoluble tie. 
Talk not, then, O you fathers and mothers ! to your sons 
of forensic fame — of senatorial halls — of the distinction of 
professional life, or of the gains and emoluments of com- 
merce. It is not for our class, surely, to furnish more re- 
cruits to this hazardous service in which so many of the 
youth of the country have already been lost — lost to any use- 
ful purpose of living — themselves miserable from that hope 
deferred that makes the heart sick — or disappointed of the 
objects of life have become overwhelmed by bankruptcy and 
ruin. Give to your Sons the pursuit of Washington, who 
gloried in being a Farmer ; the field and the council cham- 
ber he sought from duty, but his Farm at Mt. Vernon, where 
he wisely directed the plough from choice and pleasure. 

"Wide — wide may the world feel the power of the plough 
And yield to the Sickle, a fulness delighting, 
May this be our conquest, the Earth to subdue, 
Till all join the song of the harvest inviting, 

The sword and the spear 

Are only known here 
As we plough, or we prune — or we toil void of fear, 
And the fruit and the flower all smile in their birth 
All greeting the Farmer the Prince of the Earth." 



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